Would you take shorter showers if you could see how many gallons you are using while you are in the shower? Would you be more conscious of your water use if you could see your total usage online? Some cities and gadget makers are betting on homeowners reducing their water footprint simply by more accurately and consciously tracking their water usage.

There are at least three ways to track home water usage between monthly bills and without trying to decipher the city’s whole-house water monitor in your yard: online, wireless and with single-device gadgets.

Online water monitoring

New York City recently became the largest city in the world to offer online water tracking. It is part of the city’s shift to the equivalent of a smart grid for water.

Utility officials have traditionally read water meters manually, sometimes as infrequently as four times per year. Of course, sending out meter readers is expensive and inefficient. It also means water bills may be based on estimates and subject to human error.

Like the smart electric grid, the new NYC water system instead uses digital meters that transmit information to utility providers and homeowners. City officials hope homeowners will reduce their usage once they can track it in real time. For example, they can see the difference in daily consumption after taking shorter showers.

Wireless Water Monitoring

Homeowners in Boulder, Colo., don’t even need to go online to track water usage. They can see an LCD display of their water consumption right on the fridge. For $200, the city will upgrade the home to a smart water meter and provide an indoor water monitor.

The device is more convenient than the outdoor monitor, and it allows tracking for specific intervals. For example, users can measure the water usage of one sprinkler session, or tally water usage for a week of planned water frugality.

These gadgets aren’t available everywhere, and can’t tap into old analog meters. However, the market is growing quickly. Experts expect smart water technology to grow into a $16 billion industry within a decade.

Track Each Tap’s Water Usage

If you don’t live in New York or Boulder, you can still get smarter about your water usage with a range of devices for tracking the water use from each faucet, hose and pipe in your house.

This high-tech garden hose nozzle displays the water usage on an LCD screen as you feed the veggies or wash the car. The idea is that you will be more conscious of the amount of water you use, and try to find ways to lower the number on the screen.

A second water usage meter is also designed for garden hoses, but may allow greater flexibility. It can attach to the hose line for a drip irrigation system or mobile sprinkler, as well as the spray nozzle.

Finally, the geeky gadget blogs were abuzz recently with a leaked concept for the Koolhaus faucet, which will track water usage with an LCD screen and send the data to your computer.

Smart grids aren’t just for electricity anymore. Water grids are getting smarter, and smart homeowners can get in on the act.

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